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To better understand today’s Gospel you need to know: That the question posed to Jesus by the Sadducees on marrying a surviving brother is referring to an ancient Hebrew law (Levirate Marriage) found in the book of Deuteronomy (Dt 25:5). When brothers live together or when relatives of the same clan, through marriage, hold property in common. It was only in this case that the law was to be observed. This was to keep the property of the deceased within the same clan. Jesus informs them this law will not apply in heaven for two reasons. One there will be no marriage because there is no further need for procreation, and second there is no death, life is everlasting. Their real question is about the resurrection of the dead, primarily because they denied this very fact.
My, how time flies. The trees are losing their leaves, the hours of daylight have decreased, and two-weeks from today we celebrate the last Sunday in ordinary time.
Yes, December 2nd starts the season of Advent. These last three Sundays of the Liturgical Year invite us into the future. We are accustomed to think of the close of the church year as the end, it is really an opening into the end-time, into the future. These last three Sundays shed light on what God is doing in preparation for this future. Today we look at the question of the resurrection and how we are to live in anticipation of it. We live in the presence of God now, and our hope is to live in the fullness of God’s presence after life on earth.
How do we live in anticipation of the resurrection? Do we have the faith of a mother and her seven sons in the reading from second Maccabees? These seven brothers, and their mother, were martyred because they did not give up their faith in God. They believed in the future resurrection of the body, for the just one. Interesting enough this took place about 165 years before the birth of Jesus. They were offered riches and honor, if they would only reject the Law of Moses. And today we are faced with similar if not the same circumstances. Likewise the question of faith and the resurrection of the dead still remain for some.
The Church teaches there is nothing we can do to earn heaven. There is nothing we can do that will stop God from loving us. We are not justified by obedience to the law; it is by faith that we encounter Jesus. Where sin abounds faith abounds all the more (Rom 5:20). If you are ever in doubt as to how God reacts when we fail, listen to the words of Jesus “I also do not judge you guilty. You may go now, but do not sin anymore” (Jn 8:11). In your prayer time ponder these words….take Jesus with you to your canyon of shame. Invite Christ to journey with you… to stand beside you as you retell the events of the darkest nights of your soul. And then listen. Listen carefully. “I do not judge you guilty.” Watch. Watch carefully. He is leaving a message. Not in the sand, but on the cross. Not with his hand, but with his blood. His message has two words: Not Guilty.
Jesus died to his own will so he might accept God’s will fully. He died too soon, too terribly, too sadly, and all this for us. He died to bring forgiveness to sinners, life to the lost and love to the unlovable. In following him, we too will die, not just at the end of our time here on earth but as part of the process of becoming more like the One who died for us. Perhaps our dying might not be as dramatic and tragic as that of Jesus or of the seven brothers and their mother. Most likely it will be tedious, and lacking in drama. Nevertheless, it is through our dying, all kinds of dying, that we prepare to enter the experience of resurrection.
Those who marry begin a new life together, but not without dying to themselves. Marriage puts an end to the word “I” with its new vocabulary of “we” and “us” and “you.” My self, my preferences, my opinions, my choices, my desires must automatically yield to the other, who because of my love has become foremost.
With parenthood also follows a dying to my free time, my solitude, my peace and quiet, my expensive hobbies, my desire for freedom from responsibilities. With all the joys children bring into the lives of parents, they also bring with them the opportunities for self-sacrifice and daily dying that every parent is willing to do for love. As children mature and begin to live their own lives, parents will have to allow them their choices of friends, careers, spouses, etc. so they may become their own free and independent persons. Surely there is a dying here to which every parent must surrender, however gracefully or grudgingly.
There is also a dying in growing older, as each year and every illness and ache sap strength and vigor. There is a dying when plans don’t work out or when a business fails. There is a dying when parents grow old and ill and are no longer the rocks on whom we can rely and the bottomless resource upon whom we can always depend for support. There is a dying when friendship is broken or ended. There is a dying when divorce ends a marriage and disrupts a family. And when a loved one dies, the reality of their dying brings us to the ultimate test upon our belief in the resurrection.
It is that very belief that sustains us and sees us through these various kinds of dying. Faith in the resurrection is faith in a miracle. This miracle does not rely solely in the belief that the dead body of Jesus was raised and transformed in glory. The true miracle is what this action reveals: the illogical and humanly inconceivable love of God. In spite of the evil, ugliness and pain of this world, in spite of our failures, our refusals to love, our violence and destructiveness — God loves us and remains at the center of our reality, keeping watch over all. Jesus came to reveal this love; the seven brothers and their mother died in response to this love. We are called to do the same: to reveal God’s love in all we say and do and to respond to God’s love with all that we are and shall become.